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KSN Midori
KSN Midori was a Japanese manufacturer of injection-molded plastic model kits that produced some of the earliest model kits of the in 1969. History Originally located in Kagoshima, Midori has been a Japanese manufacturer of model kits and was in operation from the 1960s through the early 1970s. Apart from the usual car, tank and plane kits, they produced a fairly large line based upon and science fiction franchises (such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea or Stingray, respectively) which were hugely popular in Japan at the time. The remarkable thing about the Midori products was, that many, if not most of their products were endowed with toy-like properties. Most of their products could be, if so desired, equipped in the most cases with s, allowing the finished and assembled products to move on their accord when wound up. A Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea submarine variation, for example, could allegedly move when fully assembled and submerged in water. The company inherited this particular feature from the former independent "KSN" half of the company which had, in the 1950s, specialized in he construction of self-propelled balsa wood flying objects. Toward the end of its existence, the company had moved its operations to Tokyo as Midori-Syokai, Co., Ltd. Up until that point, it had employed a purely Japanese home market-orientated marketing strategy, as all box art and instruction sheets were only composed in Japanese. Despite a last ditch effort to try to break into the international market by releasing the then popular "Slot Racing Cars" model line with both box art and instruction sheets exclusively composed in English, the company has faded from existence. In the current model kit community, the Midori sci-fi model kits are presently commanding premium prices in the second-hand market on sites such as eBay and Amazon.com, due to their scarcity. Star Trek releases In 1969, Midori released two differently-sized Star Trek model kits which represented the original . Midori released these on the occasion of the very first airing of in Japan, the first episode of which having aired on on the Nippon Television Network, and while the series was still in production – though only barely. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E5%A4%A7%E4%BD%9C%E6%88%A6 While no scales were stated on the box art or instruction sheets, the smaller one was measured at 23×14×4 cm, whereas the larger one measured 32×18×5 cm.Toshio Okada, Lost Plastic Models (December 1998), Bbmf Magazine, Inc., pp. 36-37, ISBN 4766332687 Set against the established length of the 1:650 scaled AMT model of the Enterprise at 45 cm, that translated to roughly a scale of 1:1250 for the smaller one and 1:915 for the larger one. The smaller one has proven to be the "normal" standard model kit, without any embellishments. It was the larger one, No. 350-5, that turned out to be the most unique version, as far as the Star Trek model community was concerned (as evidenced by a modeler reviewing one), as it embodied the "play options" for which Midori was renowned. That model featured a friction motor in the guise of a propeller sticking out of the shuttlebay that would drive the assembled model, mounted on a wheel assembly, on any flat surface. Neither of the two were in any way related to the AMT/Aurora products in scale nor in tooling. It should be noted though, that it remains unclear whether or not any of Midori's products were officially licensed as no definitive answers were provided on either the box art or in the instruction sheets where no copyright information was given. Furthermore, legalities surrounding copyright issues in general were at the time not yet resolved definitively for Japan. Nonetheless, until 1992, Midori had been, besides AMT/Aurora and Estes Industries, the only company that had released Star Trek model kits. Footnote Category:Collectible companies